“I feel like this election is about the people of Mitchell,” Duncan said. “In the past, the candidates would come in and promise everything for a vote. … I just want to know what we can do, as a community, not what I can do by myself. It’s not about me; it’s about the community.”

Of course it’s about the people, Mr. Duncan. Who else would it be about? Anyways, you want to know what you can do? Take a look around this site, for starters. There are a multitude of suggestions provided by both readers of this site and myself.

Duncan, a Republican, said the city’s cable contract with Charter Communications, the disrepair of the sidewalks and roads and the lack of good-paying jobs are just a few of the things he’s interested in tackling.

This is (somewhat) encouraging. I highly recommend the city look into revamping its contract with Charter Communications. Charter, in my opinion, provides below par services at exorbitant rates. I’m further aggravated by the fact that the City receives only $1 per customer from Charter. The City Council, which has been mulling over this very topic recently (without any action, of course), should look at how the City of Bloomington and Insight Communications work together, as well as how much they receive from Insight (hint: it’s more than $1 per customer per annum).

The messed up sidewalks? Yeah, they’re old, ugly, and dangerous, just like they have been every time this topic has been brought up. Can we fix them now?

“Jobs for Mitchell should be a priority,” Duncan said, “for whomever is elected. … I think Mitchell can be competitive in attracting quality jobs.”

Really? I don’t. Mitchell doesn’t have the infrastructure to support quality industry, nor do we have anything to attract them here. Why do you believe “Mitchell can be competitive in attracting quality jobs”?

“One of my political heroes is (former Mitchell mayor and local businessman) Jerry Hancock. He’s a big inspiration to me because he always put the people of Mitchell first.”

@ say it ain't so
Your post at 7:54 am, well said. However, most volunteer firefighters volunteer because they like to help their neighbors, they like the excitement, or are following in a member of their family's foot steps. Many do not do it for pay, or even care about the money. It's something you do because everyday you can look at yourself in the mirror and know, not think, know that you have helped people when no one else could. That makes it all worth while. However, with government regulation becoming stricter, run volumes increasing every year, the fact that most house holds need two incomes to survive, volunteer fire departments are becoming a thing of the past. Most places now are going to a combination (paid, and volunteer) fire departments. I'm sure all volunteers that read your post are happy that you spoke up so highly in favor and defended them. Like people have said many years ago, what would you do if volunteers didn't volunteer...hopefully we'll never have to find out.

Then it is something you shouldn't have to worry about, seeing as now the 1% cap on property taxes in the state of Indiana is in place. Take a good look at how much you pay in property tax, is it 1% of the assessed value of your property? Or are you paying less than 1% of the assessed value?

Tm
Oh yes a 15% increase in what you pay in property taxes...that would hurt anybody. But if my word is true, I've been looking for the information, and 1/10 of your property taxes goes to fire protection, would you be against giving the fire department 15-17% more than you give them now. It's pennies really, if it is 1/10 of a percent, would you be against giving 1% (or a dollar) for every 100 dollars you pay?

Rick
No volunteer firefighter or EMT carries what is carried on the trucks, theres just to much equipment, especially when you talk about the defibrillator. Then you have the fact that maybe that one that lives less than a mile from you....might be the only one around on that day (it's volunteer...it does happen). There is no perfect be all end all solution except to have paid firefighters at a fire station ready to go. Everybody wants help when they need it...but nobody wants to pay the price to insure that it is there when they do. It's always amazed me that you never hear about Volunteer police officers, Volunteer trash collectors, or Volunteer street departments. These are things that a community feel are important enough to pay for. Then you have the Volunteer fire departments that respond to fires, medical, hazardous materials, car accidents, natural disasters, special rescue (high angle, water, entrapment, etc.), cat in a tree, etc. Just like the paid departments do. Then they get slammed for not having anybody around at that time, or taking to long. Then when you bring up paying some of them, you get people saying that they don't want to or wouldn't want to or can't pay for it. Is it not just as important to insure someone is there to save you, your family, and your property as it is that you trash is picked up?

I have family that live in town and I work in town, so I have seen city respond as well as Dunn. I have also seen Marion repond. Thank goodness(not knocking either dept. because both are good) not to my house. I have always followed politics locally, statewide and nationally, not sure where the 10 cents comes from you mentioned....my property taxes are not cheap and yes a 15% increase would hurt me, family and friends.

honestly even living outside of town i have seen alot of first responders arrive well before the ambulance as well in town. also from living in a marion covered are i have seen it take nearly 20 minutes for responders to arrive to the seen when a trained one lives barely over a mile away due to the fact they have to go to the station even though in my mind they should have one person directly at the seen to attempt things such as cpr

TM, I have a question for you. You just said you live 4.5 miles out. If you live outside of city limits, you get your service from Marion twp now...right. At one point you said "I have seen the ambulance(in Mitchell) take 10-15 minutes longer to get to a run than Mitchell First Responders" You seem to have alot of inside information on Mitchell's fire dept. and then say that your not even protected by the city's fire department. So if thats the case, why would Marion taking over runs in the city bother you so much? If they have 14 emt's and 8-10 ems first responders like the website says they do, and a couple of trucks that can run an ems call, it can't be because you think you'll be left unprotected while they make a call in the city. If your really only paying 10 cents for every 100 you pay in tax, you can't be that worried about a tax hike of 15-17% more. (ie 10 cents is only 1/10 of a % out of 100. A 90% increase would only be 1 dollar for every 100). Some of your posts do sound like you were hard lined opposed to it.

As it stated 40% of the rating is based on water supply. With tanker shuttles there are places beyond the 5 mile range and not a hydrant insight that the 250gpm could be reached, I would go into the math on a tanker delivery rate but that would take to much time. 26% is for equipment. That would give (if it was one department) 4 front line engines (rather than 2 apiece) 1 Rescue, 2 brush units, 1 tanker, and 1 mobile air bottle re-filling station. Personnel accounts for 24%. Marion is allowed 30, Mitchell is allowed 15 (30+15=45). 15% of that is based on number of firefighters available for the initial response and how quickly the firefighters can respond. The other 9% reflects the initial and ongoing training the firefighters receive. Basically it would be more training, more firefighters, more equipment, tankers to augment the water supply (in places where they may be outside of that 1000ft from a fire hydrant). The ISO rating (after an evaluation of the fire department) would go to a lower classification, causing a savings in insurance costs to homeowners in and outside city limits.

ISO stands for The Insurance Services Office, Inc.. They use what they call the ISO Public Protection Classification or PPC. . Heres some information on ISO ratings and what a fire department has to do to lower insurance costs. (information taken from http://www/lmnc.org/pdfs/ISOFire.pdf )
Water supply is the most important single factor, and accounts for 40% of the total rating. Fire equipment accounts for 26% of the rating. Again, there are both some specific minimum equipment requirements, and additional equipment standards based on the numbers and types of structures in the community. Regular testing of the equipment is also a factor. Personnel accounts for 24% of the rating. 15% of that is based on the numbers of firefighters available for the initial response and how quickly the firefighters can respond. The other 9% reflects the initial and ongoing training the firefighters receive. The alarm and paging system accounts for the remaining 10% of the rating. Other insurance companies use their own systems for rating the fire protection for a particular property; a company might classify properties based on the individual property’s distance from a fire station and water supply. (cut and pasted from the website I mentioned for your pleasure). It does state, as you already said, that SOME insurance companies will only go by the distance from the fire station. However, when I contacted all of the insurance companies you mentioned (and one extra one, American Family) they all stated that they go by the fire departments ISO rating, with slight differences. So, a lower ISO rating in the city could, depending on what insurance company you are with, lower the insurance costs.

Where did I mention ISO in my 1:13 am post? I said they go by distance from a fire station. I know that the city is within 5 miles of Marion and the MVFD. At no time when I talked to the insurance agents did they mention ISO just distance. The previous post is off of idhs, I found it by typing ISO ratings for Indiana in the search field, but could not find individual fire department ratings.

When ISO develops a single classification for a community, all of the community's properties receive that classification. In many communities, ISO develops a split classification (for example, 5/9). Generally, the first class, (Class 5 in the example) applies to the properties within a defined distance (5-road miles) of a fire station and within 1000 feet of a fire hydrant. If this description applies to your property than your new ISO rating is a 5. The second class (Class 9 in the example) applies to properties beyond 1000 feet of a hydrant but within the defined distance (5-miles) of a fire station. If this description applies to your property than your ISO rating is a 9. ISO generally assigns Class 10 to properties beyond the defined distance of a fire station.

OH.....looks like H-J may have a point there TM. You did say at first that those insurance company's wouldn't lower the rates by the ISO (what does that stand for anyway) rating, then you said they didn't go by that. Which one is it?

jl
The other reason is because Mitchell is down to only 1 person with a medical certification, and big Dan T doesn't want to leave the citizens of Mitchell without any protection. Marion has several EMT's and EMS first responders and they are right there on the highway and live in the community too.

Ok, here we go. You said in your post on 04.04.08 at 1:13 am "According to Farm Bureau, AllState and Dunbar Insurance homeowner’s rates are based on how far away you live from a fire station(5 mi), so most rates would not go down." Now you say on 04.04.08 at 11:11 am "The insurance companies mentioned in my post do not go by ISO so therefor it would not help those people." First off Dunbar is an Allstate agent, 849-4440, I called and was told by the agent "Yes they do go by ISO but the rules are a little quirky". So I called Farm Bureau 279-6551 and was told "Yes they are based on ISO and within city limits is considered a protected area. I also called American Family, they go by town class. It's based on fire hydrants (and distance between them) and if the fire department is Paid or Volunteer, not sure what other factors they use on that...I'll have to look it up. So a higher or lower ISO rating would effect insurance rates with those companies that you first stated go by ISO, then stated that they don't go by ISO. I'm convinced your just trying to cause arguement and strife where there doesn't need to be any, all of your other posts have shown that you like to point out the negatives of a merger or a district and choose to ignore the positives. At this time there is no "official" talk of a merger, there is also no "official" talk of a fire district. On the comment about responding to the station to get an EMS truck or driving your own vehicle to a scene, if you look at departments within Lawrence county that run EMS (there is only one department that doesn't) Most all respond some type of emergency vehicle
(Perry twp :Squad 94, Marshall twp : truck 605, Pleasant Run twp: Squad 15, Shawswick twp: EMS 1, Huron: Rescue 1, Marion twp: Rescue 9,
Guthrie twp: Squad 1 or 2, Oolitic: Rescue 3,
and Indian Creek: Truck 1) Thats 9 departments that DO run apparatus to Ems runs out of 12 total in lawrence county. Got to be some kind of clue.

The insurance companies mentioned in my post do not go by ISO so therefor it would not help those people. My initials do not match the times mail... I AM a Times Mail Subscriber. Like I said in earlier post I am not for or against it at this time... I want more info.

TM Subscriber
Your post at 1:13am (where you asked the insurance company's about insurance homeowner rates) I'm gonna put a big hole in your boat on this one. The Marion twp fire station is at Hwy 37 across from T.V tower rd. (this is in the city limits) The 5 miles that you spoke of is a radius from that point. Mitchell is only 3 square miles (Basically the entire city is within the 5 mile radius of that station....get a map and measure it out....remember 1 inch equals 1 mile) Everybody in the city's insurance would drop because of the lower ISO rating that Marion twp has (nothing against the city guys...just Marion does have a lower ISO rating) That is if your insurance company goes by ISO (some of them don't). And TM (love that the times mail and your initals are the same...kinda throws people off) It has been a long standing rule on Marion, that if you have to go past the incident to get to the station, you stop at the incident. If you have 5 people en-route to the station and your 1 mile away from it, you go the incident. There are 9 guys on Marion that live in the city, there are 15 to 16 guys that live within 2 miles of the station. They can be there pretty quick. So basically, none of the arguements you presented hold any water (or you tried really hard to make it sound worse than what it really is). I'm in favor of the departments merging because it will be better for the people in the city of Mitchell (where I live, and my family lives) and better for the people in Marion twp. (more firefighters, more trucks, more equipment, etc) In the future you could be looking at turning into a combination department (paid, and volunteer). Marion had 462 calls last year, Mitchell had 238(as reported on http://www.in.gov/dhs ) thats 700 calls in 2007 (Bedford fire department had 554 and a 1 million dollar budget). Think about it.

TM Subscriber
Marion does respond to the station to get the EMS vehicle, which carries Medical grade oxygen and all the oxygen masks needed to treat patients, combi-tubes which can be inserted into a patients airway when they are not breathing so that one of the 14 EMT's or 8 first responders can do the breathing for them. Baby Asprin (to give patients when they are having a heart attack) Epi-pens (when a patient is having an allergic reaction)Insta-Glucose (for diabetic emergencies) 2 Trauma bags (with assorted splinting and bandages) A C-Collar bag (with assorted sizes of C- Collars including pediatric sizes)Most importantly, there is an AED on Rescue 9, one on Squad 4, and 2 more that are soon to be placed on other trucks. An AED (for those that don't know) is the device used to shock a patient when they suffer a cardiac emergency. So in that one truck they carry what you mentioned, and more. Average response time (time of call, to time of en-route, is around 2-4 minutes)that is documented. Property taxes, may go up for a district..this is true. If you live in Marion Twp. now you pay around $0.10 (ten cents) for every $100.00 (one hundred) that you pay in property taxes. The increase you spoke of at 10:58 pm yesterday, would make the increase between $10.00 (ten dollars) to $15.00 (fifteen dollars) per $100.00 (one hundred) in your property tax. I would say, that is an extremely high guess, doubt that it would be that high of an increase.

whoa! I'm not putting anyone down here. I have needed an ambulance myself and because of where I live in the city, no one could get there because of the train. Before there was an ambulance based in Mitchell, I was told by the ambulance people, that they could be in Mitchell from Beford in 7 minutes. Not saying that is true, just repeating what I was told. All I know is that we need fire protection, and someone to respond to medical emergencies. I think it should be up to the firefighters whether they want to take on more areas. I am guessing that the Mitchell fire dept. would also go on runs in the county with Marion if they merged. So these men and women that give up their time so much, should have a say in this matter. I know that I admire them very much. If you think it's an easy job, why don't you try it yourself. By the way, just for the record, I am not a firefighter or in any kind of emergency service. I am just a citizen of Mitchell. If anyone wants to put any of these people down, I suggest that you step up and try to do what they do, and if you ever need help I'm sure you will be singing a different tune.

You guys are seriously sitting here critizing volunteer firefighters. they take time out of their own personal lives to go on runs. if there is a run christmas morning while with the kids openning presents they get off of the asses and go save people. that is ridiculus you guys would say crap about them. yes it might take a little longer but at least they do have all the tools needed. to say the least there are around 10 first responders and emts on marion and one lives really close. it usually takes dunn longer and they are sitting in the ambulance.

If a firefighter lives 4 miles away from the station and the call is 5 miles away from the station ther same way the firefighter came how can they get there in just 2-4 minutes more? Paid firefighters sleep, so how can they get to a scene in 30 sec anywhere in Mitchell. I have seen the ambulance(in Mitchell) take 10-15 minutes longer to get to a run than Mitchell First Responders and they do have cervical collars, splints, bandages, etc in their vehicles along with b/p cuffs and stethoscopes.

Yeah, Mitchell goes directly to the scene in their P.O.V.s (personally owned vehicles). And Marion twp does go to the station to pick up their EMS truck (Rescue 9). Even though it takes a little more time (maybe 2-4 minutes), at least they have the right equipment to save a life. Mitchell rarely, IF EVER, has any medical equipment with them on a scene. On a further note...IF the two departments merged, we could have a few full time paid firefighters. This would dramatically lower the response time, and that 2-4 minutes could be lowered to just 30 seconds.

According to Farm Bureau, AllState and Dunbar Insurance homeowner's rates are based on how far away you live from a fire station(5 mi), so most rates would not go down. I really have mixed feelings, I don't feel that the average person can afford tax increase. There would have to be a showing of proposed procedures of a merged department in order for me to make an educated decision. If rumors are true... one department can respond directly to an ems run in their vehicles and the other must get ems truck from station before responding even if it means driving by the house they would be responding to...

but would our insurance rates go down? I don't know enough about this "merger" to decide either way. Would it be a paid department if it was that large? If it is a full time paid department then I would think that our homeowners insurance would surely go down. Maybe it should be put to a vote (by the people, not the council) . What do you think t-m subscriber, for or against?

I don't think you could find a downside to it, not one that would be a downside to me and everybody else that lives in the city. Does mitchell fd and marion fd have websites where I could look up some facts?

You have my apology, I took it that you meant that it was sad that marion and not mitchell was responding in the city. Although I wouldn't say you have nothing, your lucky that you have another fire department close to you that is willing to help out when needed. I'm going to have to agree with "Wazup?" and the post on 4/02 at 5:46. What would be the down side of these two departments becoming one department?

Boy, you read me all wrong! I appreciate everything that any volunteer firefighter does...period! Whether it be Marion, Mitchell, or Shawswick. I am just saying it is sad that Mitchell used to have a very decent fire department and now we have nothing. I guess I need to express myself better for those who don't get the jest of my posts.

Yes the female was suspended, Tomlinson has not been showing up for quite sometime now, the other guy recently quit the department. That leaves Fred to make all of the medical calls in the city. Thats a pretty tall order for one guy to fill. I heard from one of the guys on Marion that it is a temporary thing until Mitchell gets things lined out. Rather than saying it's a pretty sad situation, I would think you would be glad that these guys are willing to help you and your family out until Mitchell F.D. gets it worked out. Guess that just shows where your head is at.

I know that Fred Cassidy is certified for medical runs. The female first responder was either suspended or terminated....not sure which. There is two other gentlemen that do first responder calls. One is Jay Tomlinson and the other one I don't know his name. That is all we have that I am aware of at this time. Pretty sad situation.

Maybe the city isn't left without a fire department. Can't marion just do it, they are doing it now. I know for a fact that mitchell does not have "several emts and first responders". As of right now the only have 1 or 2 that have a licence to handle a medical run.

Well that makes alot of sense to quit!!!! Why wouldn't they want one department. I remember some of the arguements back during the election, it seems like a good idea. More firemen, more fire trucks, more emts. What is the down side of there being one department?

I spoke with one of the Mitchell Firefighters/EMT's today and asked what the real deal was regarding the fire department. Here is the true story! The firemen were getting tired of Danny Terrell trying to merge the two fire departments(Marion/Mitchell) and several of the firefighters quit the department over this unresolved issue. They want there to be two departments just like it has been in the past so the city of Mitchell is pretty much left without a fire department. WTG!!!

That was pretty interesting! I heard today that marion is only covering the medical runs that the city has because mitchell doesn't have any emts since the mayor made them quite making medical runs if they don't have a licence to do medical. How long have they been doing medical calls without any emts?

Ok, so danny got ahold of marion and they are covering the city because mitchell fire department is short handed. It's nice that they are willing to do that, and I agree that they should just keep covering the city. when your talkin about the car fire, was it marion or mitchell that wasn't wearing gear? and where can i find this video?

they didnt merge. danny contacted them because the were "short-handed" i have no idea what that means but i think marion should take over. they are alot more strict in their rules. i also know there is a video on the internet with them responding to a car fire and the person hosing the car was not even wearing turn out gear. if that shows the stupidity of this town. i think marion should take over.

Not sure what is going on with it, I saw where marion made 2 runs in the city. Marion is a good fire department, did marion and the city go ahead with making it one department like was talked about during the elections?